This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Sports

Spartan Soccer Splits State Tourney Games

Girls cruise to victory over Jamestown, as boys drop overtime heartbreaker to Tabb

just missed a home playoff sweep Tuesday night, as the baseball and girls soccer teams won and advanced to the VHSL AA state semifinals, while the boys soccer team lost a heartbreaking overtime thriller to visiting Tabb ().

It was business as usual for the girls soccer team, as leading scorer Ellie Zoepfl gave the three-time defending state champion Spartans a lead over Jamestown with a goal in the first minute of the game. The Spartans never looked back, applying relentless pressure on the Jamestown goalie and quickly rushing out to a three-goal lead. Even with the game in hand, the Spartans never stopped pressing, and Samantha Rabinek closed out the scoring to give Broad Run an impressive 5-1 home win (see Samantha's goal and more of the Spartans constant attack in the video with this article). 

The Spartans now head to Radford University where they will take on Jefferson Forest at 4 p.m. Friday.

Find out what's happening in Ashburnwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The boys soccer team took on the hard-charging Tabb Tigers who played inspired soccer and took an early 1-0 lead over the host Spartans. Tabb maintained the lead into halftime, yet Broad Run seemed destined for victory in the second half as they continually controlled the ball in Tabb's side of the field and secured numerous corner kick opportunities. Despite the constant attack, Tabb held strong to its 1-0 lead.

Then, with just four minutes remaining, Cullen Hunter – the Spartans throw-in specialist – placed a perfect toss into the Tabb goal box that D.T. Ellsworth corralled and sent home for the game tying goal. (see the game tying goal in the video with this article).

Find out what's happening in Ashburnwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The Spartans rode the momentum of that goal to the end of regulation, and had the opportunity to knock off the upstart Tigers in front of the home crowd in overtime. But, Tabb had other ideas, as they held the Spartans off the board in the first half of overtime. Tabb’s Riley Maw broke free and sent the winning goal into the net in the final minutes of overtime.

Congratulations to both Spartan teams on their great seasons, and good luck to the girls in the state semifinals!

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?